Tali Sharot is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and director of the Affective Brain Lab. She is on the faculty at MIT and UCL. She combines research in psychology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience to reveal the forces that shape our decisions and beliefs. Prof. Sharot is the author of “The Influential Mind” and “The Optimism Bias”. Both of which received the British Psychological Society Book award. Her papers have been published in top scientific journals including Nature and Science. This work has been the subject of features in many outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, the BBC and others. She has also written for Time, The New York Times, the Guardian among others. Her TED talks have been viewed 12 million times. She held fellowships from the British Academy and Wellcome Trust. She received her Ph.D. from New York University.